The vintage cinematic and thespian quality of this sort is what you get when Nollywood teams with Hollywood in the execution of a story that takes two different settings and demands the best of acting from Rob Hays, Vivica Fox, Ada Ameh, Fredda Steffl, Joseph Benjamin and others. The acting helps leaven the already fascinating story. It’s easy to catch the bug from Fredda Steffl, the producer who plays Alexandra. She comes real. Rob Hays’ acting brings with it some brutality expected of a psycho. He so fits into it you are convinced that is the way he is away from the cameras. But that is acting. You can’t doubt the directorial proficiency of Robert Peters as he reaches into his big bag of cinema experience in making this movie a filmic reality.

Alexandra is a warning on the dangers of online dating. The virtual world is yet to be the real world. It is doubtful if the virtual reality would ever be the actual reality. This is because people easily hide away behind that world to present themselves in sparkling colours which they are not in any way close to in actual physical reality. The meeting of Kevin and Alexandra in this virtual space underpins the modern man’s embrace of virtuality as reality. It is with this belief in mind that Alexandra and Kevin fall in love. But there is more to falling in love online than meets the eye because the interface of connection is the screen. Screen is a liar. It has the capacity to make things more beautiful than they appear. There are so many photoshopped images that fly around online while in reality the people in the pictures are not as pretty as they look. The screen is fantasy. It is the screen age.

Yet we cannot minimize the power of the screen and the world it presents to us in the creation of the bond of two people over some distances. Prior to this time, Alexandra cannot be in Nigeria and have such a relationship with Kevin who stays in the U.S. So the virtual world makes long distance love a reality. But is the internet enough tool of bond? Can it effectively sustain the love it births?

Alexandra lands in the U.S some months later and discovers that Kevin is a sex slave master. He appears green from afar but he is red in reality. Alex endures all sorts of abuse day and night with nobody to cry to. Every moment in and around the house is monitored by Kevin’s cameras. The house and its environ come to be a prison for Alex.

When Alex finds the escape route with the help of one of Kevin’s friends, Joseph Benjamin, she seeks revenge in her own way. She joins the U.S army and as time goes on feels armed enough to tame Kevin who kills his own friend because he helps Alex out of his prison. What Alexandra does next shows freedom is not enough. She is bent on establishing the fact that to cement your freedom, some bold drastic steps have to be taken. What she does to quench her fear and reify her freedom would leave your mouth agape for a long time.

The suspense in this movie is biting. It’d take you from love to hostility, then freedom and vengeance. The scene where Benjamin takes the poisoned drink would leave you cringing. The scenes of several abuses would get your dander up as much as you travel through pity and fear for the central character.

There is no unnecessary lighting, the sound and picture quality comes clean and clear. There is an accurate understanding of the two settings explored in the course of the story line as the movie scenes shuttle between Nigeria and the U.S.

When you are done seeing this movie, you begin to nod. It’s as a result of the cinematic exploration of that side of you that wants an escape from your country so that you can find a knight in an American. You get scared of leaving Nigeria in the name of the promises of a distant love. You even fear the internet the more. You realize how unreal and callous the virtual reality is.

Alexandra was premiered in the U.S. on the 21st of April 2018. It is set to be released in Nigeria on the fourth of May 2018. Brace up for the exposition of this shattering little secret.